Toy steam shovel



Patented Sept. 15, 1925 UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LOUIS STROHACKER, OF FREEPORT,

ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO STRUCTO' MANUFACTUR- ING COMPANY, OF FREEIPORT,ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

TOY STEAM SHOVEL.

Original application filed September 12, 1924, Serial Np. 737,270.

Divided and this application filed February 12, 1925. Serial No. 8,653.

To r/Zl whom it may mare/'71.

Be it; known that Llmms SFHUHMh'l-IH. a citizen of the United States.and a resident of Freeport. Stephenson (ount v.'. and State of Illinois.have invented eertain new and useful lniprovements in Toy Steam Shovels.of which the following is deelared to be a full. clear. and exactdescription.

This invention relates to toy steam shovels and'its principal object isto provide an amusing. entertaining and instructive toy for children.which shall simulate the action of a steam shovel or dredge in pickingup a load. elemtin; it and dumping it. In my pending application forpatent on toy steam shovel. filed September 12. 1921. Serial No.737,270. is illustrated one form of meehanism for operating the shovelproper and the trap door thereof. and in the present, application, whichhas been divided out of said pending application. another form of shoveloperating and trap door controlling mechanism is disclosed. The presentform has several novel eharaeteristies. namely: it

is considerably cheaper to construct, has less moving parts and can hesold at ,a lower price. One of the objects of the. present invention isto, provide a novel arrangement of parts, operated by a single cord orother flexible'eonneetiqm. for swinging up the scoop and dumping: theload when the seoop reaches a eertain raised position. With these andother object and advantages in View this invention consists in theseveral novel features hereinafter fully set forth and claimed.

The invention is clearly illustrated in the drawing aoeompauyingthisinvention in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of shovel embodying asimple form of the pres-- ent invention; Fig. 2 is a t'ront. elevationof the shovel proper; Fin". 3 is a side elevation of a certain latchwhich operates to holdthe trap door in closed position; Fig. 4 is across section through the shovel arm taken on the line ol" Fig. 2 andFigr. 5 is a side elevation .-:l|owin; the invention applied to a toydredge. I

Referring to said drawings and lirst to l igs. l to,4 inclusive. whichillustrate the. preferred embodimentof the present, invention, thereference character (3 designates the supporting member of a running.gear, which is mounted. on wheels 7 and upon a tov steam which issupported a steam boiler like structure 9. These parts may be made'ot'light metal work 'tormed up by suitable dies and secured together in anysuitable manner.

Secured to the forward part of the supporting. member 6 are two posts.one of which is seen at It) in Fig. 1. and secured near the rear part oithe support (5 are two braces, one oi which is seen at 12. The upperends of these posts and braces are connected by a headed pin, or otherdevice 19, which forms the fulcrum tor the shovel. The braces 12 projectslightly beyond their connection with the posts 10 and their extremeends are pared apartand secured together by a. rivet it); The posts andbraces incline l'rom the sides of the support (3 toward each other attheir upper ends as will be more elearl seen in Fig. 2 where the postsand braces are. shown in dotted lines. Said supporting member (3. postsIt). and braces 12 form the support. upon which the shovel is tulerumed.as will be presently 0X- plained.

l ulcrumed on the pivot pin 1!) is the shovel 13. and said shovel ismovable from a down or loading position. seen in dotted lines in Fig. l.to a second or dumping position. where the sroop portion l-l oer-upies aI'msition slightly above that shown in solid lines in Fifi. 1. ln its-2preferred"l'ornl the shovel comprises a scoop or reeeptaele 14 open atthe front ll" and bark H there f. and having a trap door or hingedbottom 15. limited at the back ot the s--oo'p, to ears vl-l located onthe top wall I? of the scoop lret'erably thesides ol' the trap do arebent up to form flanges that overlie the rear portions of the side wallsof the scoop. Secured to and projecting up from the top wall 17 ot' thescoop. is the shovel arm 18. which is preferably formed ol two spacedstrips or bars ol' metal. said shovel arm extends between the two postsand braces 10, 12. and the pivot pin 1!) passes through the shovel armand forms the l'ulrrum upon which the shovel is swim}. up and down.

'Slidably mounted on the shovel arm 18, between the two members thereof.is a lateh so (see Fig. 3) whieh is formed with a tino'er 31. adaptedwhen in one position of the lateh, to underlie it in its elosedposition. In its preferred form said latch 30 has two channel. likemetal pieces 32 secured-upon its outer sides,

thetrap door 15 and hold and the flanges 33 of said channel like pieceslie along the outer edges f the two members of the shovel ar'n lb. Theexact form of latch is not material. to this invention, broadlyspeaking, but it forms a very satis factory latch. for the purposeintended. The main portion of the latch and the chan nel like membersthereof are riveted together and these parts are located between the twomembers of the shovel arm. The latch is guided to move lengthwise on.theshovel arm by the flanges 33 which engage with the edges of the twomembers of the shovel arm. The latch is slidable along the shovel armand when permitted to do so, it falls by gravity to the position shownby the dotted lines in Fig. 1 that illustrates the down or leadingposition of the shovel. The latch may, however, be drawn along theshovel arm so as to move the supporting finger 31 from beneath the trapdoor to thereby permit the trap door to open and swing down, and thisposition of the latch is shown by the dotted lines in the up or (lumpingposition of the shovel. The shovel and latch are operated by mechanismwhich will now be described.

Secured to the latch, as for instance, by

booking one end into a hole therein, is a.

latch actuating, link 34 which may comprise a piece of rod or wire. Itextends between the two members of the shovel arm from the latch to thetree end thereof when it strikes against rivets 35 that connect the endsof the two members of the shovel arm. The free end of the link 34 isformed into an eye 36, and secured in said eye of the link 34 is a cordor other flexible connection 20, which runs to a winding drum 22. towhich it is secured. In the form illustrated in Fig. l the winding drum22 is contained in the hollow of the boiler 9 and is mounted on a shaft.

, 24 which is iournaled in the side walls of the boiler and has a handcrank formed upon one outer end. The cord or other flexible connection20, passes through an opening in the trout ol the boiler 93'.

The winding drum 22 ulay be rotated in either direction by turning thecrank 23, thereby winding up the cord onother flexible connection 20,thereon, and drawing down. upon the free end of the shovel arm 18, andswinging up the other end and therewith the scoop. During the movementof the scoop from the loading position, (shown by the dotted lines inFig. l) to the dumping position (shown in full lines) the finger .31, ofthe sliding latch is in engagement with the trap door 15, therebyholding it closed, and the eye 36 of the latch operating rod or eye isheld close to the rivets or pins 35. When the shovel reaches theposition at or close to the one shown in full lines in Fig. 1 the pullupon the latch actuating link 34, is in adirection tending to move itlengthwise of the shovel arm, and when such position is reachedthefurther rotation of the drum causes the cord or other flexibleconnection 20' to pull thelatch actuating link outward into the positionindicated by the dotted lines in the up position of the shovel, therebydrawing back the latch and disengaging. its finger from the trap door,permitting the trap door to open and swing by gravity into the positionshown by the clotted lines in the up position of the. shovel. hen thecrank is released or turned in the opposite direction to which it wasturned to raise the scoop, the cord or other flexible connection 20. ispaid out from the drum. thereby permitting the scoop to swing down andwhen it approaches its down position. the trap door swings toward itsclosed position and the latch drops to its effective or lockingposition, drawing the latch actuating link 34 down with it. When theshovel reaches its down position, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 1the trap door is fully closed and the latch in elfective positionlocking it shut.

It will be seen that'the cord or other flexible connection 20, beingsecured to the. latch actuating link 34, it operates to swing the scoopupwards, when the cord is pulled backwards and that when the shovel armreaches apredetermined, position, the cord or flexible connectionoperates to move. the latch actuating rod lengthwise of the shovel armthereby disconnecting the latch from the trap door and permitting it toswing by gravitv to an open position.

in the term oi the invention illustrated in Fig. 5 it is shown asapplied to a toy dredge of which 6 is the body portion which simulatesscow. The post or mast 10 is 5ecured to the trout end of the body 6 andis braced by the brace bar 12. lhe shovel. 13" may .be of the same formandconstruction as [he one of the l OllIl shown in Figs. 1 to 4. It istulcrunied on the pin 19* which connects the post or mast and brace.The. drum 22" is shown as mounted on the brace bars 12'; it ismanipulated by a crank 23*. The cord, cable or chain 20 is secured tothe drum 22*, and is trained around a roller 29 mounted on the body 6,and around the pin 35 at the end of the shovel arm 18". lhe. rod or wirelink 34- is fastened to the latch 30, and extendsto the end ot'theshovel arm 18 where its end is formed into an eye and the cord cableorehain 20* is secured to it. The brace bars 12 project beyond the postor mastlO and are con-.

nected by a pin it) which acts as a stop for the shovel am.

In this form of the invention, when the drum is rotated, and the cableor chain wound up thereon, the pull of the cable or chain is exerted toswing the shovel in the direction of the arrow 01, until the acute ianglebet'ween the cable and shovel arm is increased to an obtuse angleor, in other words, until the cable and shovel arm form almost astraight hing-whereupon the pull on the rod or wire link 34 is in adirection almost lengthwise of said link, and the latter is thereupondrawn back and therewith the latch, thus releasing the trap door andpermitting it to open. \Vhen the drum is turned in the reversedirection, the cable is paid out, therebypermitting the shovel to swingdownward and when it approaches the position shown the latch 30 and link34 drop into the locking position shown and lock the trap door shut.

.VIore or less variation of the exact! details of construction ispossible without departing from the spirit of this invention; I desire,therefore, not to limit myself to the exact form of the constructionshown and described, but intend, in the following claims, to point outall of the invention disclosed herein.

I claim as'new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a toy, a body portion having a support extending up therefrom, ashovel having an arm tulcrumed on said support and a scoop at one end,said scoop having a discharge opening controlled by a trap door, latchmechanism mounted on-said arm and having a latch arranged to lockinglyentrap door closing the dischargeopening of said scoop, a latch on saidshovel arranged I to lock said trap door in its closed position, and aflexible shovel and latch operating connection, connected to said latchand extending from the free end of said shovel arm.

3. In a toy, a support, a shovel having a shovel arm fulcrumed on saidsupport, a scoop on one end of said shovel arm, and a trap door closingthe discharge opening of saidfscoop, a slidable latch-on said shovelfrom said link.

having a finger arranged to lock said trap door in its closed position,and a flexible shovel and latch operating connection, connected to saidlatch and extending from the free end of said shovel arm.

4. In a toy, a support, a shovel having a shovel arm fulcrumed on saidsupport, a

scoop on one end of said shovel arm, and a trap door closing thedischarge opening of said scoop. a slidable latch slidably mounted onsaid shovel arm and having a finger adapted to underlie and lock said.trap door in its closed position, and a flexible shovel and latchoperating connection, connected to said latch and-extending from thefree end of said shovel arm.

5. In a toy, a support, a shovel having a shovel arm fulcrumed on saidQIPPOIt, a scoop on one end of said shovel arm and a trap door closingthe discharge opening of said scoop, a latch on said shovel arranged .tolock said trap door in its closed positlon,

a link secured to said latch and movable lengthwise of the shovel arm,and a flexible shovel and latch operating connection secured to andextending from said link.

(i. In a toy, a support, a shovel having a shovel arm fulcrumed on saidsupport, a scoop on one end of said shovel arm and a trap door closingthe discharge opening of said scoop, a slidable latch on said shovelhaving a finger arranged to lock said trap adapted to underlie and locksaid trap door in its closed position, a link secured tosaid latch andmovable lengthwise of the shovel arm and a flexible shovel and latchoperating connection secured to and extending LOUIS STROHACKER.

and extend-

